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DHS observes possible cellphone-site simulators in Washington DC area

The U.S. government is publicly acknowledging for the first time that it picked up on what appears to be unusual and unauthorized surveillance activity in the nation’s capital last year from cellphone-site simulators – devices that can be used to intercept calls and text messages covertly.

But the Department of Homeland Security says it had not determined the type of any devices possibly used or who might have used them, although it says their use by "foreign governments may threaten U.S. national and economic security."

The agency also did not say how or where any devices might have been used, admitting only that 'anomalous activity" observed "appears to be consistent" with the cellphone-site simulators and that it's "not aware of any current DHS technical ability to detect" them.

Stingrays, also known as "cell site simulators" or "IMSI catchers," are invasive cell phone surveillance devices that mimic cell phone towers and send out signals to trick cell phones in the area into transmitting their locations and identifying information. When used to track a suspect's cell phone, they also gather information about the phones of countless bystanders who happen to be nearby.

Surveillance systems that track the locations of cellphone users and spy on their calls, texts and data streams are being turned against Americans as they roam the country and the world, say security experts and U.S. officials.

Federal officials acknowledged the privacy risk to Americans in a previously undisclosed letter from the Department of Homeland Security to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) last week, saying they had received reports that “nefarious actors may have exploited” global cellular networks “to target the communications of American citizens.”

The letter, dated May 22 and obtained by The Washington Post, described surveillance systems that tap into a global messaging system that allows cellular customers to move from network to network as they travel. The decades-old messaging system, called SS7, has little security, allowing intelligence agencies and some criminal gangs to spy on unwitting targets — based on nothing more than their cellphone numbers.